I/O Module with Web Accessible Product Data

• US 20070130310A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Hall, Kenwood, Sichner, Gregg, Batke, Brian, Penick, Jerry, Baczkowski, Gary
• Application Number:
  US11/537,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20070130310A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0423 Input/output
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34444 Web control system, with intelligent control components each with web server

Abstract

An industrial control system provides I/O modules with web-servers and dual protocol ports so that product information stored in the I/O modules can be served over the same network interface used by the industrial control system to any Internet ready browser.

Claims

1. An I/O module for use with an industrial control system having a controller executing a stored control program and communicating with a plurality of I/O modules, the I/O modules receiving sensed signals from an industrial process and outputting command signals to the industrial process according the stored control program and the sensed signals;

the I/O module comprising;

(a) a network interface providing network control communication between the I/O module and the controller to exchange sensed signals and command signals and providing network Web communication between a Web browser and the I/O module;

(b) a control signal protocol circuit communicating with the control network interface to;

(i) receive the command signals to drive output lines attached to the industrial process according to the command signals;

(ii) receive signals from the industrial process and transmit sensed signals according to the received signals;

(c) a Web page memory holding a least some static data indicating a manufactured state of the I/O module;

(d) a Web-server communicating with the Web page memory and the control network to receive browser signals and to serve the static Web data to a remote browser;

whereby browser accessible information about the I/O module can be embedded in the I/O module at a time of manufacture.

2. The I/O module of claim 1 wherein the static data selected from the group consisting of:

a serial number;

a product model number;

a product model name;

manufactured date; and

a manufacturer name.

3. The I/O module of claim 1 wherein the static data is a user manual for the I/O module.

4. The I/O module of claim 1 wherein the static data is a wiring diagram of the I/O module.

5. The I/O module of claim 1 wherein the static data is a URL pointing to additional information specific to the I/O module.

6. The I/O module of claim 1 wherein the I/O module further includes:

I/O interface circuitry providing an electrical interface between the I/O module and input and output lines communicating with the industrial process;

a control system memory;

a processor executing a stored program to moderate the communication of command and sensed signals between the control signal protocol circuit and the I/O interface circuitry producing command data associated with this operation and stored in the control system memory;

wherein the Web-server may communicate with the control system memory to serve command data as browser signals via the network interface.

7. The I/O module of claim 6 wherein the command data indicated a fault in an operation of the I/O module detected by the processor.

8. The I/O module of claim 6 wherein the command data is operating statistics of the I/O module.

9. The I/O module of claim 6 wherein the command data includes a current state of command and sensed signals.

10. An industrial control system comprising:

(a) at least one control network;

(b) an industrial controller;

(c) a plurality of I/O modules communicating with the industrial controller over the control network to receive sensed signals from an industrial process and outputting command signals to the industrial process according a stored control program executed by the industrial controller;

the I/O modules including;

(i) a Web page memory holding browser accessible static data;

(ii) a Web-server communicating with the Web page memory to receive browser signals and to serve the static data to a remote browser over the control network;

(d) a search appliance communicating with the control network to accept a search query and to search through the Web page memories of the connected I/O modules to provide a response to that query.

11. The I/O module of claim 10 wherein the search appliance may accept a query providing a listing of all I/O modules of a particular type determined by their qualities as manufactured.

12. The I/O module of claim 10 further including:

(iii) an I/O module memory holding browser accessible dynamic data related to an operation of the I/O module in processing sensed and command signals, the Web-server also communicating with the I/O module memory to serve the dynamic data to a remote browser over the control network.

13. The I/O module of claim 12 whereby the search appliance may accept a query describing functions of I/O modules.

14. The I/O module of claim 12 whereby the search appliance may provide query results showing static or dynamic data from the Web page memory or the I/O module memory.

15. The I/O module of claim 10 wherein the search appliance includes a web-server to serve query results to a remote browser.

16. The I/O module of claim 10 wherein the search appliance provides a web page graphically representing a fault state of multiple I/O modules connected on the control network.

17. The I/O module of claim 16 wherein the graphic representation of the fault states are linked to pages providing information about the I/O modules.